Bes is the Egyptian god of dwarves.
History
Bes, unlike many Egyptian gods, was not banished to the Duat by the House of Life. He still in the current day was honored by many people and could easily ask for favors.
Mythology
Bes was an Egyptian deity worshiped in the later periods of dynastic history as a protector of households and in particular mothers and children. In time he would be regarded as the defender of everything good, and the enemy of all that is bad.
The Kane Chronicles
The Throne of Fire
When Bast has to leave for a while she tells Carter Kane and Sadie Kane that she had gotten a friend to act as their guardian for the meantime. While Sadie, Liz and Emma are on the run from Babi and Nekhbet, Bes saves them by scaring them away and freeing Sadie's grandparents. He has them and Liz and Emma return to their home while he picks up Carter to join him and Sadie and takes them to Russia through a portal that he knows no one will be watching. Bes helps them reach Vladimir Menshikov's house, but stays behind both out of fear of the evil magician and because as a god he can't enter his house. When Sadie returns with Set and the injured Carter, Bes is angry to see Set, but confirms that he likely does know the location of the last piece of the Book of Ra. Bes takes them to Alexandria through an underwater portal and joins Carter in his quest to rescue Zia Rashid. He aids Carter and Sadie in their efforts to restore Ra until he sacrifices his ren in a game with Khonsu to buy more hours of time and becomes basically mindless. He ends up in the House of Rest in the Duat, mindless and tended to by Tawaret and visited by Sadie who promises to find a way to restore him.
The Serpent's Shadow
Sadie went to The House of Rest/ Sunny Acres and talked to Tawaret. Then she went to see Bes and she promises that she will find his shadow and return him to his former state. Sadie went on a quest with Walt to do so and the two succeed in finding his shadow. After Walt binds it to a shabti, Sadie returns it to Bes by using the reverse of an execration spell, returning him to normal. Later when Sadie, Zia and Carter are in the Land of Demons, Bes took them out from the battle of the senile gods and demons by driving them away from the demons and the Sea of Chaos. At the beginning of the battle with Apophis, he's one of the first gods who battles the Serpent, along with Sobek, Bast and Ra. Later, when Sadie and Carter are casting the execration spell on the shabti that has the Serpent's Shadow, he's one of the gods along with Bast that keeps Apophis distracted. While most of the gods fall out of either despair or Apophis' power, Bes keeps up the fight until the end, helping to restore Carter's confidence and holding Apophis off until he's destroyed, even landing a blow that rattles Apophis' eyes in his head, one of the few blows that actually affected him. At the end of the battle, Bes is sent to the Duat. At the end of the book, Sadie and Carter visit him, and he said Tawaret and I are going to built a home on the lake side. I've been gotten to this view and he puts that maybe he'll get some little dwarf hippo babies to look after!. Bes also tells them that if they ever need him, they can call on him, saying that he always had an easier time traveling to the mortal world than other gods.
Personality
Bes is said to have an 'attitude'. He is friendly until someone bothers him. If you bother him enough he could yell "BOO" at you. Sadie says that she can't think of him as small because of his gigantic personality. He scares demons away.
Appearance
Bes is said to be so ugly that he can use his ugliness as a weapon. He wears a "dwarf pride" speedo and lives in his limo. He is about four feet tall, hairy, has a mono-brow, and has skin covered in ugly red welts.[1]
Abilities
Bes has the ability to scare almost everything away by saying "BOO!" It is said that sometimes when Bes yells "BOO!" his face swells to the size of a melon and his eyes to the size of grapefruits. This can be quite literal as this is shown to be able to banish gods back to the Duat and sent Desjardins and Vlad back to the First Nome just by doing it. This apparently doesn't work on Set, though its unknown if it was because Bes had chocolate all over his face, or because Set is simply too powerful to be even fazed. Zia was also able to withstand it. Incidentally, he can also summon his Mercedes in the same way and when in proximity to sustained magical effects they turn back to normal, which he uses to turn Carter back to human when he was turned in to a snake. He also was able to swat away weak flames shown when Zia Rashid attacked him with fire elemental magic after being freed from her imprisonment in The Throne of Fire. He has been shown to be adept at summoning portals and seems to have a great knowledge of their locations. He is able to find an alternate location to open a portal that the magicians from the House of Life doesn't know about and that wasn't exhausted already and knew that the Alexandria portal would be underwater. He also knew that Bahariya was cursed to prevent portals being opened there (though Ptah showed the ability to as a god) and that Alexandria was apparently the closest portal. Bes also claimed to be able to travel to the mortal world even when the gods exiled themselves, claiming that he always had an easier time traveling to it than the other gods.
Relationships
- Bast: Bes used to be "secretly" in love with the cat goddess Bast
- Tawaret: The hippo goddess Tawaret has always been in love with Bes. He resolves this problem in The Throne of Fire by choosing Tawaret. Before his ren was devoured by the moon god Khonsu, he asks Sadie and Carter Kane to tell Tawaret he tried to turn back the clock.
- Sadie and Carter Kane: Bes had come to like Sadie and Carter Kane when he was their guide and protector. Although he seemed to like Sadie a little more, perhaps because of the time when they first met and he saved her from the gods Babi and Nekhbet. Bes willingly sacrificed his ren to save Sadie and Carter, telling them that they are the "real deal" and that he enjoyed helping them. During the final battle with Apophis, Bes fought Apophis until the very end of the battle to protect them.
Trivia
- Bes was shown fighting demons in World War 2, a conflict between the Olympian gods. It is unknown why demons were present or what role Egypt played in the conflict.
- Then again, he was stated to have been adopted by the Romans as a god at some point. However, Bes' Greek and Roman equivalents are unknown.
- Bes was never shown to have a host.
- While Bes mostly relies on his "BOO!" to do his fighting for him, he is shown to be a very capable fighter, fighting Apophis until the very end of the battle even where most other gods have fallen. In this battle he is shown using a club as a weapon and is even able to land one of the few blows that has an effect on Apophis.
References and Citations
- ↑ Revealed in Disney Biography